"Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops, like bishops, and your religious act like religious." - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, 1972

Friday, June 30, 2017

THIS IS ALL WE NEED TO KNOW

Posted by Tim

There is some thought that yesterday's announcement about the allegations of sex abuse against the Australian Cardinal Pell will somehow help our case against Apuron.

Maybe.

I don't like Pell because he's a neocat sympathizer. But he's also a hated "conservative," and as secretariat for the economy, he is tasked with cleaning up one of the most corrupt places in the Vatican, an assignment rife with land mines.

Pell himself, not the allegations against him, may be our greatest help in proving our case against Apuron. Upon being accused, Pell will be going from Rome to Home to face the charges against him. Upon being accused, Apuron went from Home to Rome to flee the charges against him.

This series of pictures shows Apuron crashing a papal welcoming line just days after he was first accused on May 17, 2016.

It's obvious Apuron is in a panic. He didn't even bother to set a private appointment with Francis, something an archbishop could have easily done. He's also stupid. Any public meeting with the pope is a photographic event. What was he thinking! LOL. About himself, of course!

Also, Pell has already demonstrated the right way to deal with the charges when in 2001 as the new Archbishop of Sydney, the same charges were brought against him. Pell stepped aside and let his own sex abuse policy be applied to him. He was exonerated. (I wrote about it here in 2014.)

When charges of abuse were first brought against Apuron by John Toves in 2014, Apuron not only did not welcome an investigation as did Pell, Apuron threatened to sue Toves and use church resources to do it while Lurch (aka Msgr. David C. Quitugua) threatened to call the police and The Adrian ran interference for the cowardly Apuron quivering behind closed doors.

Later, when I insinuated the same charges just before Roy Quintanilla came forward, Apuron responded with the same threat to sue.

There is also another difference. Catholics make up about 25% of the population of Australia, where as in Guam, it is near 90%. Australia is also not a Catholic-friendly place whereas Guam of course is not just friendly, but generationally invested in the Catholic Church like no other place on the planet.

And then there is this. Whereas it is a government agency (police) who brought charges against Pell in Australia, in Guam it has been the long hard work of mostly "manamko," the Catholic elders of Guam's Catholic community who have been the foot soldiers in the battle to remove Apuron.

Most of those same elders supported Apuron in his fake wars on gambling, abortion, and same-sex marriage. Yet, they have been willing to keep the battle to remove Apuron alive, walking mile after mile, Sunday after Sunday, for over a year, while praying the Rosary and singing hymns, to keep the message to remove Apuron quietly in front of us all, and especially Rome.

Once in a while, I ask these people what motivates them. All of the responses can be summed up in one phrase: THEY KNOW SOMETHING. "I knew that my father knew something," said Mae Ada on the radio in August of 2015, nine months before Apuron's first accuser came forward.

Mae's father had served the parish in Agat for many years including the years Apuron was accused of raping and molesting the boys (now men) who have since come forward. According to Mae, her father insisted that when he died that Apuron NOT perform the funeral Mass.

And there is one last way the Pell case may help us. The allegations against Pell have brought the greatest pressure yet on Francis, who, otherwise, has been the darling of the mainstream media. On the clergy sex abuse issue, thus far, Francis has been strong on talk and weak on walk. Given the high profile of the case against Pell, Francis is now under a very intense spotlight, and (we're hoping) he's probably less likely to let Apuron walk.

But to highlight the main difference between Apuron and Pell. Upon being accused, Apuron ran to Rome and Pell ran to home. That's all we need to know.

11 comments:

So one of our great failures thus far has been our inability to make people see that the neos are only a fungus that found a warm place to grow on an already very diseased tree: the Archdiocese of Agana - supposedly the church we "want back." The neos did not bring abortion, divorce, child abuse, suicide to this island at nation topping averages. We'll get rid of the neocats easily because it will be as simple as scraping the fungus off the diseased tree. The diseased tree is another matter.

Diseased though it may be, where there is life there is hope. The Archdiocese of Agana has a chance to survive, heal and thrive. The questions is are we willing to do what is necessary to make this happen?

True, Andrew. Which is why I said "diseased" and not "dead." But there is no hope of wining the war when we refuse to name the enemy. And its not the neocats. Apuron was bad long before they showed up.

This point is so true. Apuron was bad long before neos. The enemy we all know who they are. Neo millitary army were only activated to assist to cover up and protect the past in exchange for Apuron giving them freedom to operate as they wished. It was a mutual MOA. One gives money and allows numbers to grow in a seminary, Apuron. Neo become his private millitary. Thats how it was. The real enemy was present long before neo.

I met Cardinal Pell in Melbourne some years back he was 'dragged' along to the national convivenze which my husband and I attended. Like many 'high up' in the Church he was little more than a 'decoration for the ncw however I liked how he spoke and despite not knowing who he was he sat with us and had a beer introduced himself as George and it wasnt until others came forward grabbing his hand and fussing about that we realised he was a significant leader of the church!! The redeeming feature is his obvious insistance to return to Australia, face the court and the media, and deal with the charges. As much as abuse is a very personal issue and close to my own heart, I am keeping a very open mind. Its true that here the Church is really frowned upon , not respected and is considered only in terms of the wrongs that have been done by some of those (esp in the past) who have been involved in the most disgusting of behaviours and damage to many young people.However its a case of watch this space

Good news. Heroic Fr. Shay Cullen, founder of PREDA Foundation Inc. in the Philippines, advised that Australia has cancelled the passports of pedophiles. The Vatican should have done that to globetrottng Apuron when they suspended him in 2016. Instead, they left him to run free and re-offend. It's anyone's guess where he's hiding now.